What Essential Windows Software Do You Recommend?
So I’ve started a new job today (will blog about that later) and my new employer has just sent me a brand new Windows laptop. It’s been about 2 years since I last developed using a Windows machine, so am wondering what essential software I should be downloading to install? What handy utilities and applications do you use in your day-to-day work?
Hi!
Firefox of course!! with Firebug.
Eclipse with Aptana and Flex plugin :)
Three extensions for Firefox that I can’t live without:
1. Chris Pederick’s Web Developer extension
2. Screengrab! extension for Firefox to capture screens.
3. HTML Validator
Essentials for me are Cygwin for the *NIX environment and Console (http://console sourceforge.net) for a tabbed terminal (works just fine for CMD.EXE and for Cygwin’s bash shell).
Ditto - http://ditto-cp.sourceforge.net/
* jedit.org - plus any and all plug-ins you may find useful
* iZarc - amazing little app for decompressing just about kind of compressed file
* launchy - nice little launch utility similar to quicksilver
* foxit reader - nice, little app for reading pdf files
* e - TextEditor - windows replacement for TextMate (can use TextMate bundles as well)
* Firefox, Tunderbird, Safari
* Firebug
* PDFCreator - installs as a printer so anything can be turned into a pdf
* Google Desktop - cause search on a windows machine just sucks without it
* Java, Ruby, Python (or whatever language you like)
Productivity:
1. Launchy - just like QuickSilver for MacOSX. I have Windows-Space keys mapped to pop it up.
2. Ditto - saves your clipboards, always, with search even. I have Windows-` key mapped to pop this one.
3. Free Launch Bar - replaces MS Quick Launch Toolbar. Got folders, auto-open and most important — Windows key mappings. So I got putty mapped with Win-P, and Perforce mapped with Win-4, and Firefox mapped with Win-I (which used to be IE).
4. WinRAR - I just love how it shows the icons near in the right-click cascade menus, and it handles all known archive formats.
5. Yahoo Widgets - especially the “Day Planner” widget, that displays outlook calendar on the desktop, and “mini digital Clock” which I make transparent and just put on-top-of-all-windows. The Weather and Stock Tickers are nice.
6. WinSCP, the sftp/ftp client.
7. Putty, the ssh/telnet client. And I use Putty Agent for storing my keys, this also works with winscp.
8. GVim, I’m just a vim user … it rocks. Especially the ctrl-v vertical select and edit thing.
9. GnuWin32.sf.net - all the linux utilities you are used to, like grep/awk/sed/wget/sort/uniq/etc…. compiled natively for windows. No need for Cygwin and it’s ugly shell.
10. Xming - if you get to work with unix/linux applications that just need them X-Windows. This is it. Natively compiled for windows.
11. Firefox - DownThemAll add-on is essential. So is AdBlock Plus. And IE-Tab is nice to have.
12. Outlook 2007 - if you have exchange in the office, this is the bad boy that will share your calendars to Google Calendar without any plugins.
13. Google Chat, will also tell you if you have unread google e-mails.
Security & Maintenance:
1. Spybot Search & Destroy (spybot.info) - I usually don’t install TeaTimer, since that is a resource hog. But I use Immunize to inject IE and etc/hosts with all the bad servers. Scan for spybots from time to time, and use the Startup-List thing to remove installed garbage that starts with the computer. Got a Reg-Fixes in there as well, which I trust.
2. CCleaner - just cleans everything, all the temp files and caches and various stuff. Got a Reg-Fixer in there as well, which I trust too.
3. GriSoft AVG, free.grisoft.com — the antivirus that does not turn your system into a turtle. I set it to do auto-updates in the night , and then a full scan. Besides it’s catching things if you get into the wrong website or get the wrong e-mail.
4. Page Defrag, formerly Sysinternals, now Microsoft. This little thing will de-fragment the file where the registry/swap/whatever is saved each time your computer starts up. Usually it’s not even noticed, but improves performance like a charm.
5. Secunia PSI - scans all the applications you have installed, and tells you which one is vulnerable and has patches that you can download.
Misc:
1. The Microsoft Official theme: “Zune”. Makes your XP look kind of like a Vista.
2. Sun JRE 1.6 - it’s nice to have, especially if you intend to run Eclipse or something.
3. Adobe Acrobat Reader - for reading PDFs.. duh!
4. Adobe Flash - for Adobe Flash.. duh! :)
That’s more or less it.
I haven’t tried the “Ditto” suggested above, but I use a clipboard manager called ClipDiary at home and at work. I can’t imagine programming without it.
If you’re doing any MySQL administration, I recomment SQLYog as a versatile desktop mysql client.
Not really applicable to your situation with a laptop, but UltraMon is still the best utility I’ve found for managing multiple display environments.
Tell them to get you a Mac and send that PC back to them! Hahaha! JK…
OS X
Could recommend better if we know what you will be working with :)
-RegSeeker
-WinRAR
-Desktop Space
-Flickr Uploadr
-DAEMON TOOLS
-FTPRush
-Firefox
-SQL-Front
-O&O Defrag
-Shareaza
-Gimp / Photoshop
I keep a list of recommended Windows programs here:
http://www.zible.com/computers/recommended-programs/
You can get so many good free programs these days that you can kit out a new laptop for nothing. I always install Firefox as the first program. Then I use it to download my security programs - Zone Alarm firewall comes first, then AVG Antivirus, then Adaware for spyware. Once security is sorted, I move on to Thunderbird, Open Office and other things like communications. On my list, I highlight programs that I think are essential and those which I personally like to use.